The Etiology of Rosacea

The etiology (specific signs and symptoms and recommended treatment) of Rosacea from an Eastern perspective suggests that the root cause is "excess heat." In Chinese Medicine the menopausal heat is referred to as "steaming bones." This is a great metaphor for what often feels like volcanic steam that rises up through the face and as eruptions on the skin. This is part of the peri-menopause hormonal shift that occurs in women between 35 - 50, which is when Rosacea begins to pop up, as it were.

The fact that it occurs predominately in Caucasian women is because their skin is fair and more sensitive to external and internal heat. When there is excess heat and toxins, the skin becomes a route for eliminating these two items resulting in skin disorder. The primary causes for heat and toxins are inappropriate diet, stress, and negative emotions.

These factors congest the liver and gallbladder disrupting their normal functioning. Heat and toxins overflow from these organs into the blood, which rises to the face affecting the skin. Why some get rosacea and others do not with the same factors, is due to individual metabolism.The cure according to eastern medicine is to remove heat and toxins from inside the body at the root or source.

According to Mazin Al-Khafaji, co-author of Peter Deadman's Manual of Acupuncture, rosacea falls into the following patterns:

Heat accumulation in the lung meridian: Because the taiyin channels contain more qi than blood, the lung's yang qi can become hot, rise and overflow into the face and nose area.
Heat accumulation in the stomach and spleen: Stagnant heat in the yangming channels rises to the face and nose, aggravated by the consumption of hot drinks, spicy food and alcohol, which all enter the mouth. This opens and damages the blood vessels in the face.

Recommended Treatments:

Signs and symptoms: easily flushes, erythema, red papules with an absence of, or a few, pustules

Persistent erythema: chuan xiong (radix ligustici chuanxiong); hong hua (flos carthami tinctorii); safflower is good for circulation, easing blood stasis, and especially for erythema
Papules: tao ren (semen persicae); peach kernel moistens the intestines and moves blood stasis; also hong hua
Blood stasis: heat stagnates and leads to the stasis of heat and blood; this is further exacerbated by extremes of heat and cold

Signs and symptoms: permanent red flush, telangiectasia, many papules and pustules

Persistent erythema: mu dan pi (cortex mouton radicis); peony tree root has a strong relationship to the skin and complexion, and is used quite often to treat stagnant heat in the face. Zhi zi (fructus gardeniae jasminoidis); gardenia moves stagnant blood, and is one of the herbs to mix with frothed egg white in a facial poultice for treating facial heat
Facial itching: jing jie (herba seu flos schizonepetae)

Menstrual aggravation: yi mu cao (herba leonuri heterophylli); Chinese motherwort is wonderful for invigorating blood and regulating the menses; it also eases abdominal pain. Xiang fu (rhizoma cyperi rotundi); cypress spreads and regulates liver qi, regulates menses and alleviates pain.

In effect, this process is like pulling a weed out by the root. The weed will not grow back unless you plant a new seed in the form of inappropriate diet, stress, and negative emotions.
As many rosacea suffers know, oral antibiotics and topical ointments produce little or no results and essentially suppress the body's natural mechanism for eliminating heat and toxins through the skin. This could eventually result in a more serious health disorder in the body. An analogy is like putting a lid on a pot of boiling water and not letting the steam to escape.